1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing control device, a print data generation device, a printing system and printing control program, and more particularly, to a printing control device, a print data generation device, a printing system and a printing control program for reproducing a target.
2. Related Art
JP-T-2005-508125 proposes a printing method which pays particular attention to spectral reproducibility. According to JP-T-2005-508125, in order to achieve printing which coincides with a target image both spectrally and calorimetrically, a printing model is used to optimize the combination of printer colors (the ink volumes of C, M, Y, K, O and G) in order to match a target spectral reflectivity (target spectrum). By carrying out printing based on these printer colors (the ink volumes of C, M, Y, K, O and G), it is possible to reproduce a target image spectrally, and consequently it is possible to obtain a print result which has good reproducibility in colorimetric terms as well.
However, there may be cases where it is not necessary to achieve spectral reproducibility throughout the whole of the printed image. For example, in a color chart containing an arrangement of a plurality of color samples (color patches) which reproduce a target spectral reflectivity, there is no requirement to achieve spectral reproducibility in the regions other than the color patches. In cases such as these, it is thought that drawbacks of the following kind will arise if spectral reproducibility is also achieved unnecessarily in regions where spectral reproducibility is not required. Firstly, there is a drawback in that printing is carried out under unsuitable printing conditions. This is because the printer colors (the ink volumes of C, M, Y, K, O and G) for achieving spectral reproducibility are not necessarily optimal in relation to printing performance factors apart from the object of achieving spectral reproducibility. For example, due to the demand for spectral reproducibility, there have been problems such as an overall increase in the consumption of coloring material, such as ink, decline in the tonal characteristics of the reproduced colors, and so on. Secondly, there is a conceivable drawback in that the calculation processing load is increased unnecessarily. In other words, since it is necessary to optimize a large number of variable amounts in calculating the printer colors (the C, M, Y, K, O and G ink volumes) which allow reproduction of the target spectral reflectivity, then a problem arises in that the processing load increases if spectral reproducibility is sought for all of the pixels used in the printed image.